Black Carbon over the Central Andes cryosphere of Chile: A comparison using WRF-Chem mode

BOLAÑO-ORTIZ, TOMÁS RAFAEL; RUGGERI, M. FLORENCIA; VIDAL, VICTOR; PULIAFITO, ENRIQUE; CERECEDA-BALIC, FRANCISCO

Concepción

Congreso; 3rd Annual Meeting SOCHIRI 2020-21; 2021

Sociedad Chilena de la Criosfera

The cryosphere of the Chilean Central Andes (ChiCA) is a significant reservoir and source of water for more than 7 million people from the Santiago metropolitan region. Several studies show that snow albedo is decreasing in the ChiCA, mainly due to darkening of snowy surfaces caused by physical changes, and by the deposition of light-absorbing particles (LAPs). One of the immediate effects of this snow darkening effect is its faster melting, which would mean less water available later in ChiCA. Black Carbon (BC) is one of the most relevant LAP produced by biomass burning and vehicular traffic, among other activities. We study the effect of BC on ChiCA through a simulation performed using the WRF-Chem model with the inventory of high spatial resolution burns Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN). The outputs of this simulation were compared with BC surface atmospheric concentrations measured in the Nunatak laboratory-refuge, located in Portillo (3000 m.a.s.l., ChiCA) using a Multi-Angle Absorption Photometer (MAAP) Model 5012, (Thermo, USA). Results showed a good agreement between simulated and measured BC concentrations, with differences lower than one order of magnitude. In addition, two BC peaks, related to biomass burns events observed on the VIIRS satellite were identified. These results may allow that the outputs from the WRF-Chem model could be considered in the BC study and its effects on the ChiCA cryosphere, as a key piece to identifying sources and patterns of this pollutant, and to implementing successful strategies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change